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Telewest Group
Sainsbury's Telewest Ltd, doing business as Telewest Group (formerly Telewest Communications) is a British media company headquartered in London and since 2017, it has been a subsidiary of British retail company Sainsbury's. Its original and principal activity is the British national television network Telewest. Initially formed in 1984 as Telewest Communications Company Limited, a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the company, after spinning off its cable television arm, Telewest Broadband (now Virgin Media), went on to became the UK's fourth-largest television broadcasting company. Eventually, after a series of expansions (most significantly its purchase of Sierra Television), The company changed its name to Telewest Group. Until 2017, Bain Capital owned a 78.24% controlling stake in Telewest. In December 2016, after a bidding war with various other suitors, Sainsbury's announced an offer to acquire Telewest for £13.8 billion. The deal was approved and subsequently closed in June 2017. History Foundation and early history 1994: Spin-off of broadband assets 1994 to 2001 In 1995, Telewest Communications signed a multi-year deal with television production company Sierra Television to distribute programmes it had interest in on other channels (eg. BBC, ITV, and Channel 4), with international distribution by its formats being handled by its Sierra International division. In October 1996, Telewest commissioned branding agency Lambie-Nairn to develop a new, simplified identity across its output, due to the increase in digital services. On the same December of that year, Telewest's online service, telewest.com, was launched. On 30 March 1997, the Telewest network was re-positioned as the sixth national terrestrial analogue network, upon the launch of Channel 5. The move had been planned since the channel was announced. On 26 October 1998, Telewest's secondary channel, TeleWestern, was launched. It was the second British TV channel to broadcast exclusively in digital format. the second digital-only channel from Telewest was a film channel, Telewest Film Channel (TFC) which was launched on 1 February 2001, and was the first free-to-air film channel in the United Kingdom. 2001-2016 In May 2001, Canadian media company Canwest acquired a controlling stake in Telewest Communications. In 13 April 2003, Telewest acquired UK Television International, a pay television channel broadcasting content from UK broadcasters across Europe and in some international countries, including that of Telewest's. On 3 June 2003, a children's television channel by the network, TW Kids was launched. In February 2005, Telewest acquired Sierra Television for £237 million. The acquisition came months before its initial agreement was set to expire. A fourth digital-only channel, Lifestyle, was launched in July 2005. In September 2005, Telewest Communicationa changed its name to Telewest Group to reflect the corporation's expansion into financing its own television slate. In August 2007, Sierra Television was renamed Telewest Studios, though its American, Australian, and other national units continued to use the Sierra brand until 2009. On 1 March 2008, Telewest's television catch-up service, Telewest Play, was launched. On 30 July 2009, Telewest announced that the channel, and its services would be refreshed with a new corporate logo and brand. The new branding came into effect on the Telewest channel on 14 September. The new branding, developed by the branding agency DixonBaxi, was intended to portray Telewest as a more "contemporary" multi-platform broadcaster. In November 2009, It was announced that Canwest would sell its majority stake in Telewest Group, as a result of the latter's financial troubles and eventual bankruptcy and sale of broadcasting assets to Shaw Media (now Corus Entertainment) in February 2010. In January 2010, US-based private investment firm Bain Capital purchased a 78.24% controlling stake in Telewest Group. In January 2016, it was reported that Telewest Group was becoming an "increasingly likely" target for a possible acquisition, which Telewest itself was exploring as part of vast strategic alternatives. The company did not confirm this, however, as a potential sale or accquisition was still only a potential scenario at that point. In its third quarter financial report, Telewest reported a year-over-year loss of £91 million, in comparison to a profit of £133 million in 2015. Telewest also made a £1.013 billion write-down on its broadcasting businesses, resulting in a quarterly loss of £935.9 million, and cut its dividend to 50 pence. In June 2016, Telewest announced that Lifestyle would be re-launched as Viceland with content from US-Canadian youth Vice Media on 6 September 2016. The UK version of Viceland is jointly operated by Telewest Group and Vice Media. In July 2016, Bain Capital appointed a number of investment banks to handle a potential sale of its stake in Telewest. Several bidders had expressed interest in acquiring Telewest, including BT, CBS Corporation, Hasbro, Hearst Communications, Lionsgate, RTL Group, Sainsbury's, Vivendi, and a consortium consisting of Telefónica (which would own a 73.02% majority share) and Discovery Communications (which would own the remaining 27.98%). On 28 August 2016, Hasbro withdrew its bid the company. RTL Group followed suit on 18 September 2016. It was also noted that RTL's then-proposed bid for Telewest would have resulted in a merger between Telewest Studios and RTL's content production/distribution arm FremantleMedia, which would have created the UK's largest television production/distribution group. 2016-present: Sainsbury's subsidiary On 2 December 2016, following an eventual bidding war with three other suitors, Sainsbury's announced that they had agreed to purchase Telewest Group from Bain Capital for £13.8 billion in a stock and cash merger, pending EU approval. The proposed deal would give Sainsbury's significant holdings in the media industry. On 15 March 2017, EU regulatory approval for the deal was granted, the final hurdle in the acquisition. The deal was approved by Bain Capital and Telewest shareholders on 13 June 2017, and the deal was completed on 19 June 2017; upon the closure of the deal, the business was renamed Sainsbury's Telewest Limited, but Telewest Group would remain the trading name of the company. On 12 August 2017, it was reported that Telewest came close to selling its Telewest Studios division to ITV plc for £957 million, as an attempt by Telewest to minimise its focus on production, but the deal had fallen through, with Telewest considering ITV's offer to be "fundamentally undervalued". On 18 October 2017, Telewest refreshed their brand again; the first time since the Sainsbury's acquisition. the new design, co-developed Telewest's in-house creative unit and branding agency Superunion, and was developed around a concept of providing "context" to Telewest's target audience and programming. The unit's digital channels, T2, TFC, and TW Kids followed suit on 2 November 2018, adopting the new names of Telewest XD, Telewest Cinema and Telewest Kids, respectively. Management Financial performance Current operations See also Category:Telewest Group Category:Sainsbury's Category:Companies established in 1984 Category:Companies based in London Category:British television networks Category:Media companies based in London Category:Media companies of the United Kingdom Category:2017 mergers and acquisitions Category:Former Corus Entertainment subsidiaries